


Try That Again

by Savanna (orphan_account)



Series: It's Something In-Between (& and /) [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beginnings, Confusion, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Mentor & Protégé, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Other, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Protective May Parker (Spider-Man), Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 08:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19826026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Savanna
Summary: An AU in which Tony doesn't meet Peter Parker, but meets Spider-Man instead. Rather than a small apartment bedroom, it's the roof of a Queens pizza joint.What Tony thinks is maybe a 17 or 18 year old young adult swinging around Queens turns out to be just a 14 year old kid, and the ending from then on is unclear.





	Try That Again

_"Let's start from the beginning."_

_"...Hi. My name is..."_

\- - -

Tony Stark had been impressed by what the young vigilante could do. The videos that someone had shot were short and didn't have the best camera work, but it was enough to give Tony an idea. That and some security feeds, coupled with his helpless need of another person on his team, convinced Tony to track the hero down. Thinking like what he assumed was a seventeen or eighteen year old, he knew the new hero wouldn't have strayed too far from home, especially in that ridiculous and seemingly-useless onesie. Still, FRIDAY couldn't pinpoint an exact location, so Tony set up a parameter and began his search.

After finding him sitting on a rooftop ledge with a pizza box open beside him, Tony briefly thought of what he was going to say before he swooped down and landed behind him. He didn't fail to notice how the teen turned around in shock before he had even landed. Maybe the noise of the repulsors had given him away.

Tony's suit opened up in the front, and he stepped out while the teen scrambled to his feet and pulled his mask back over his mouth. Tony tilted his head. "Having a snack between shifts, spider-boy?"

"I-It's, I'm Spider-Man." The teen stood a little straighter, with his shoulders less hunched like before.

"Not in that onesie you're not;" Tony gestured lazily, "What's with the goggles, kid?"

"They- uh,- Why are you here? You're _Tony Stark_." 

Tony held back a chuckle. He had said it like he was just now realizing who he was. It seemed like he had an Iron Man fan on his hands, Tony noted. Also, Tony knew very well the danger of trusting first impressions, but this guy's voice sounded off. 

He ignored the question and asked some of his own, stepping forward and holding one of the web shooters up, "Did you design these? What about the web fluid?"

The goggles turned to look with him. "Y-Yeah, I did. The web fluid, I uh, I just made it in school one day-"

"School," Tony picked up. "First year of college? Senior year of high school?" He let go of the web shooter and took a step back, noting that the guy was nearing fight-or-flight mode.

Unlike him, the guy seemed to respectfully answer all his questions even though they were personal even for an alter ego. When Tony got an answer to his latest one, he had to ask again as if he hadn't heard the kid clearly before.

Sophomore year. Fourteen years old. A kid, in the most literal sense. A 'onesie' wasn't so far off from correct.

Tony's mind was telling him to back out-- this _kid_ didn't know what he was doing, this _kid_ had family who would worry, this _kid_ might get hurt and ** _he_** would be responsible for it. Hell, he might be a fan of all the Avengers, and pitting him against Captain America might just be the biggest crime against the kid. However, Tony was running out of time and he doubted he could find another candidate before the deadline. Everyone else was getting ready to go and he didn't want to be the one to make them all late. 'Fashionably late' wasn't exactly applicable to a situation like this.

"...Mr. Stark?"

Well, the kid had manners. 

Tony put a hand over his mouth for a moment and thought of how to start this difficult conversation. "I'm going to sit down and eat a slice of pizza, so you sit down with me." He walked over and disregarded any dirt or dust that might get on his pants as he sat down. The kid had chosen a simple pepperoni and cheese, and although he wasn't really picky with food he was glad it wasn't a weird combination. After the kid had joined him, sitting cross-legged as well, Tony said, "Let's start from the beginning."

When the young hero learned that Tony had meant that for him to speak, he fiddled with his gloved hands and looked to the side at the rooftops around them. "...Hi. My name is...I'm Peter. Peter Parker." Peter looked back at Tony, unsure of what the man wanted from him. "I live here in Queens with my aunt."

"And the get-up?"

He looked down at the handmade suit. "Uh, about six months ago I got these powers. My senses got dialed up to an eleven, from like a five. That's- That's why I wear the goggles. Too much information comes in sometimes."

"I have a video of you stopping a car going forty miles an hour," Tony inquired.

The kid turned his head in surprise, but then nodded. "I- yeah? This thing made me super strong...And uh, I heal like super fast. And I can stick to walls, and ceilings and stuff." He seemed glad that he could tell someone else this.

Tony stopped himself from taking another slice of pizza. There was a trail of thought about the kid's healing factor, but when it neared an area of the healing factor being 'useful' for the fight, Tony shut that thought down quicker than he had Steve's _Man in a suit of armor, take that away and what are you?_. Instead of that or asking about the other things, he took note of the kid's gladness and asked, "Your aunt or anyone else know about this?"

"No, _no_. She'd freak out, and then I'd freak out. I haven't even told my best friend." 

Well, in terms of going to Germany that wasn't great. How would he explain to Peter's aunt that Peter had to go to Germany for a while? In terms of himself, that was...good? The kid trusted him, if he was telling him all of this. Or, the kid saw him as an idol and the trust was a little misplaced. Who was Tony at the time to know the difference? 

"You ever been to Germany?"

"Huh?? No, I've never gone anywhere. I don't even have a driver's license yet, let alone a passport." 

Getting a passport would be no trouble, but convincing the kid to go seemed to be a problem. "Would you _like_ to go to Germany?" It was a lame question, Tony knew.

Peter tilted his head and crossed his arms. "I can't go to Germany."

"Why?" A childish comeback, Tony also knew.

"I- I have homework," Peter tried. His own wavering voice told them both that he knew it was a lame excuse.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Try that again."

"Well, I..." Peter looked away, then reached up and pulled his mask off. He flipped it around and looked down at it, his alter ego staring back at him. "I have Queens to look after...When you can do the things I do, and you don't and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you. If I leave Queens-..."

Tony realized that Peter had a way of being naive yet mature simultaneously. What the kid had said wasn't entirely wrong. He took note that six months was plenty of time for Peter to see some serious shit, especially when it came to the crime of Queens. He was still fourteen but this short time as a hero had already aged him. As for taking off his mask, that seemed naive until Tony remembered that if someone had a name then they had everything they needed; everything else was just an easy puzzle to piece together. That fact and how Peter trusted him made the action make sense.

But God, no one is really okay with someone trusting them like that and so quickly. A boost for Tony's ego, maybe. A boost for Tony's anxiety and sense of responsibility, definitely.

Maybe he could return the boosted ego part. "I need someone like you, Mr. Parker," Tony said. If this boosted the kid's anxiety and sense of responsibility as well, then shit, Tony wasn't great at this kind of thing. Fury had been the recruitment guy for the Avengers, not him, after all.

Peter had a pretty face, one that would make adults comment about how handsome he'd be when he grew up to be an adult. Even with furrowed eyebrows his face was still pretty. It was Peter's eyes, though. Through them he could sense everything that Peter felt. There was just a sense of pure clarity, and the saying 'eyes are the window to the soul' came to mind.

He could see that Peter was willing, despite being so conflicted inside.

"Well," the kid said, "what's in Germany?"

A war, Tony could say, but he was really hoping that wasn't going to happen even though he knew damn well that Steve didn't quit his beliefs or missions for anyone. Captain America, Tony could say, but the kid would get the wrong and opposite impression of what was going to be waiting there for them. A fight, he could say, and that would be most accurate, but it wasn't the best convincing piece.

So, he said, "A chance for you to prove yourself, Spider-Man." And that was that. A sealed deal. A two-way ticket to (and from) Germany that Tony prayed would live up to the name. 

He started work on a new 'spider-suit' right away, and contacted aunt May between his shifts implementing an AI into the suit and tweaking the new web shooter's functions. She wasn't happy about it, and it was understandable, but the lie of it being for a Stark Internship seemed to ease her conscience even if it worsened Tony's- May knew her nephew was smart. Tony knew she was proud of her nephew's intelligence. It was a sealed deal.

Because the internship meant a several months thing that may eventually turn into a years-long thing, Tony had to make sure that Peter was going to get back home afterwards. That had already been a top priority, if the new suit hadn't been a clue. He would do his damned hardest to keep the kid safe, as he would all his teammates. He was bringing Rhodey with him-- if that wouldn't make his mind sharp already, then bringing a fourteen year old kid into the battle would.

A single bruise and they'd pack up and retreat. Tony may be able to take a bruise on the eye, but if that happened to the kid then he'd have guilt about facing May even if the bruise disappeared by the time they got back to Queens.

Maybe, if Peter had been eighteen Tony would feel different. The kid would have clearly made the decision for himself- no one really trusts a fourteen year old to be making decisions completely on their own. And maybe if Peter had been eighteen then Tony wouldn't have such a grand sense of responsibility, and guilt, and anxiety.

The kid was not eighteen, though. The kid was excited about the suit, and excited to go to Germany. Tony wondered if he should have warned him a little more, but it seemed that Peter's sense of naive-yet-mature always kicked in at the right moments, so Tony put some faith into him.

Peter did get a little shaken up, and got a slight bruise to the eye. Tony took it with a grain of salt-- Spider-Man had proven himself in that moment, maybe not that he could take on a team of rogues but that he could at least keep the suit, for now. Would Tony recruit a fourteen year old to fight Captain America ever again? Likely not. But would he recruit Spider-Man again for something else? Maybe.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by Flatsound's "They'll like me when I'm sick". The beginning is a recording of the singer, stating his name before he begins the song. And then in the first few lines it goes "my name is none of your concern"; that contradiction and the feelings behind it is what pushed me to write this.


End file.
